Ars takes a look at some of the best forum comments about Diablo III.

Earlier this week, our own Gaming Editor Kyle Orland reported on Diablo III’s recent problems with servers, programming, and notably, post-launch fixes to the game’s character skill building. Keeping all technical problems in mind, how good is the Diablo III experience?

Over at the Ars OpenForum's “Perpetual Diablo 3 Thread! GAME IS LIVE!”, readers have been discussing the title since early May, just before the game launched, and have evaluated the game from all sorts of angles in more than 3,900 posts.

The thread begins with a useful set of Diablo III resources that Jebus H Cripes posted for all players, which includes the Ars battle tag list, server status page, known issues list and more. But if you still haven’t decided if you want to invest in the game, the discussions inside the forum add some insight in addition to our review of the game, including updated thoughts on how the game has evolved since that review first ran.

Aside from purely gameplay-related discussions many users seem to be making a sticking point of the game's requirement for a persistent Internet connection. Xoa notes in the comments of the review that “Honestly, I was really, really unimpressed, and I'm so happy I didn't buy it. The always-on DRM, by itself, would be all the reason necessary to avoid the entire thing no matter what, but rather then that being a tough decision I don't feel like I'm missing anything at all. I don't find the engine vaguely impressive on any level, the writing, characters, and general feel of it was a huge let down, etc.”

Benhameen does think that the game provides a deep level of satisfaction. “Do you enjoy the "completionist" part of games? Some people love it—finding/earning all the things necessary to level up. If that's exciting to you then have fun. “

Part of this satisfaction, is also tied to the game’s auction house. hambone notes “So I'm coming from the gaming camp that more or less dismissed D3 as derivative and uninteresting. Paid it no heed all through its development. Assumed most of the people in this thread were fanboys and sheeps. And now here I am of course, having bought D3 two nights ago on pure impulse out of some combination of 10 years worth of nostalgia and latent addiction…I gotta say that—by far—the killer feature of D3 is the auction house. It's more addictive to play the market and buy cheap yellows than to play the game…However, I must give two enthusiastic and controller-friendly thumbs-up to the new skill system. It is flexible, the unlockable progression is its own reward, and sub-dividing the skills into four major categories (for the Barb at least) creates a sort of 'mix and match your superhero' vibe to the game, which I like.”

GirgleMirt’ doesn’t think the auction house works all that well: “Just a few thoughts on the game. So far, I think the auction house is a good idea in theory, but in practice, it doesn't work. Say you're level 6, you'll have some magical items, couple thousand golds. Let's say you find a random magical item. If you sell it to in game merchants, you'll get say 25 gold. This same item, if bought from the merchants, will cost you something like 2000 gold. You can buy a better item in the auction house for 100 gold, and you can most probably sell it for 100, which is 4x as much as you'd get in game...So anyway, AH = breaks the game. Not to mention that crafting gems cost a fortune vs. just buying them in the AH... And you find so much damn gold, very strong items cost peanuts on the AH, if you use the AH, it just ruins the game because you don't even have to hunt for items. It ruins almost everything. Ruins the challenge, ruins the thrill of finding items (you can just buy them for peanuts...), it ruins crafting, it ruins jewel crafting, it ruins buying/selling items in game, it just ruins the game!! (and no I'm not going to use it anymore )”

Anvilfang, just like many other readers in the OpenForum, notes that Diablo III’s customization is a winning feature. “The customization is surprisingly deep with this game. At first I wasn't at all interested in this game because of my perceived lack of character progression, but I was quite wrong. The runes for individual attacks, the passives, and the mantras all make very significant changes for your play style depending on what you choose.”

The story’s narrative worked for VirtualWolf: “Woot, finished the game on Normal. \o/ I really enjoyed the story, but Diablo himself didn't put up much of a fight! Though given I was at around 725dps in the final fight and mostly spammed Rapid Fire...”

Raptor’s Broomstick, who also commented on the Ars Diablo III review, said, “This review makes me feel a lot better... I've still got a backlog of other games, but I was thinking of bumping this to the top of the list. Now I think I'll wait, let them work out the bugs, and let the whole online mess (and potentially market) settle down.”

Of course, if you have already set out to plunge into the depths of demon-blasting action in the game, you can also find other Ars readers to play with, like marshman did: “Long time lurker, delurking. Looking for some cool folks to play with so I added my name to the list. It's too bad you can't seem to add friends outside of the game.”

What about you? What are your thoughts on the gameplay of Diablo III? Now that it’s been out for a few weeks, has your enjoyment of it changed in any way? Share your thoughts with us via the comments, or advance your gameplay by joining up with other gamers in the thread. If you’re new to the OpenForum, register for an account and join in the discussion.

Promoted Comments

Old gamer here who has played D1 and D2 extensively. I have finished D3 on the normal level and enjoyed it.While the story is a bit meh and short I found the gameplay balanced and worth every buck I spent.I also had some login / logoff issues which first made me angry but then I recalled my past experience and decided that it's not worth to freak out because of some glitches.

I was at an exhibition with a friend at the times when Atari gaming was huge. He spoke with some guys who have developed a very popular title.He said "I have bought it and I love it!". The answer was "well, that was you! Thanks a lot." It turned out that they only sold a couple of copies.It was for sure not the sole problem the platform, but at least for some devs piracy killed it.

The times PC gaming got strong we organized LAN parties with barbecue and music - the biggest fun ever.Not sure if it was simply because I got older, but I remember that I was increasingly annoyed by this cheating, modding and cracking madness that began to rule the leader boards and multi player fights at the time the internet got affordable.Although I like stunning graphics new titles often had such extensive system requirements that I got fed up with upgrading every year.I ditched PC gaming, switched to board games like Settlers of Catan and didn't look back for many years.

Two years ago I bought the first iPad and encouraged by my children I began to play electronic games again. After some time I first bought some games I played together with my children and finally returned to buy and play games for me again (now on a Mac).

If the current online DRM mode would mark the end of the piracy/cheating death spiral some users suffered in the past I'm fine even with occasional hiccups.What I don't like is that there's no dedicated LAN modus for playing with my friends and my children, while I know the reasons it's not implemented.

Back to the Game. It's an evolution and beside some necessary fixes I feel that there's something left out.I read that D3 is the fastest selling PC game ever. That's a huge credit of trust from gamers.So Blizzard please don't stop here and delight us with some additional content, features and story lines beyond the obvious in a future expansion set.Overall my return to the Diablo universe is fun and a challenge - that's what gaming is about.

123 Reader Comments

All the comments you picked seemed fairly critical of the game. The only positive ones were "the AH is better than the game" and "completionists will love it." Is it really such a minority position that the game play itself is fun?

I love it. Combat is engaging and frantically chaotic, which is exactly what I am after in a hack'n'slash, and the skill customization is a lot of fun to tinker with.

I understand the aversion to always on, but having friends just pop into your game is great. There is zero work involved from moving your single player game into multiplayer, and that's a big benefit. I don't have to quit, make a new room, and have people join, then fight back to where I was. I am playing, and they can just join. Its a very fluid experience. I know always-on is a deal breaker for some people, but lets not pretend like it doesn't have any benefits at all. And really, if this is the only bad thing you can find about the game, then you should recognize that the game play itself is pretty solid.

Everything about the game has been tailored to keep you playing it. Town portals are free and unlimited, you can instantly teleport to your friends, and you can always join their games. Its amazing.

You know, it's odd. Anecdotally, almost everyone I know who has actually played the game has enjoyed the hell out of it. Only a handful have found it less than compelling. By and large, the most numerous critics of the game seem to be either people who haven't played it (unable/unwilling due to the online qualifier; don't like dungeon-clickers; et cetera) or professional reviewers who seem to be scrambling to be the first to post a negative review of the current best-selling PC game.

It's hard to argue with someone who has a preconception (this swings both ways - I readily admit to giving Blizzard games leeway on release that I wouldn't give other game companies simply due to their track record over the last fifteen years), and it seems like there are a lot of preconceptions when it comes to Diablo 3.

The initial review sucked. No, I don't mean that it said D3 sucked, I mean the initial review itself sucked. And after that it was all down hill.

Are there issues? Yep. Not least of which is the nature of the auction house and dealing with 6 million people actioning stuff. Blizzard has a lot of work to straighten it out and there will be a few bumps in the road on the way to a good solution. They need it to be damn near perfect if they've leveraged the same code for the Real Money Auction House. (If they don't they will have regulators all over their ass over it. That's just a matter of time when real money is at stake.)

The game itself has a bit of a learning curve, even for fans of D1 and D2, as well as the other RPG style games out there. The similarities with games people played previously sometimes mislead them in play style until they adapt appropriately. Seems to me the people that understand that are enjoying the game, the ones unable to adapt are hating on it.

For all my complaints, the game itself seems to work just fine with few, if any, engine bugs and only internet related glitches which everyone wishes didn't exist, but seem to be minimal now that it's been out for over a week.

The AH is broke to shit right now. Login issues and lag are very annoying. I like the game, but I would tell anyone that hasn't bought it to wait a month and let them actually make the game work before jumping in.

That said, the core mechanics are refined Diablo 2. If you like playing D2, you'll like playing D3. The only thing I don't like right now is the grinding required to get everything you need for the secret level. Way more annoying than getting to the Cow Level in D2.

Love the game, especially the fluidity of having friends join at any time. I've officially been declared a player killer by friends, because I only seem to join them when they are fighting elites/champions and they die when the enemies get tougher Is it just me, or does Ars seem to be focusing on the negatives for this game? Even this article put up negative opinions from the forums.

I feel that I've paid for a release that is no better than beta 2.0 quality. All the issues with the auction house and login issues, along with rebalancing classes, and the developers even having admitted to not testing inferno.

I know always-on is a deal breaker for some people, but lets not pretend like it doesn't have any benefits at all.

It doesn't have any benefits. Why? Because those aren't benefits of being forced to be online.

If you unplugged your network connection, you wouldn't be able to play with your friends. But if forced online wasn't available, then you could at least play by yourself.

There was no technological limitation preventing Blizzard from allowing the game to continue to run single-player in non-online conditions. They could still have all of those features you talked about and provide LAN play or just off-line single-player for those who are playing in off-line conditions.

You're conflating two things: better online support and forced-online play. You don't need the latter to have the former.

I know always-on is a deal breaker for some people, but lets not pretend like it doesn't have any benefits at all.

It doesn't have any benefits. Why? Because those aren't benefits of being forced to be online.

If you unplugged your network connection, you wouldn't be able to play with your friends. But if forced online wasn't available, then you could at least play by yourself.

There was no technological limitation preventing Blizzard from allowing the game to continue to run single-player in non-online conditions. They could still have all of those features you talked about and provide LAN play or just off-line single-player for those who are playing in off-line conditions.

You're conflating two things: better online support and forced-online play. You don't need the latter to have the former.

BUT BUT how could Bobby nickel and dime and cent and pence and other currency people with his online auction house WHICH DOESNT WORK if people could get offline, mod the game and clone items?

The always-online is annoying (especially since my laptop could probably give me a couple of hours of single-player at least...sigh) but it's not a dealbreaker for me. If you've got a decent Internet connection at home, I don't see why the DRM has to be a sticking point.

As someone who never played Diablo 2 (I know, the shame...) I'm enjoying Diablo 3. The combat is really fun, and I love how chaotic it is. Also, the graphics make exploring the dungeons really neat...very immersive. Coming from mostly single-player RPGs I was a little skeptical of Diablo 3's approach to skills at first, but I've found the mix-and-match mechanic to be fun, too.

D3 came out just as my finals were starting (argh!) so I waited a couple of weeks to buy it. Seems like that was a good decision...I haven't had any issues / bugs since I started a few days ago.

The AH is broke to shit right now. Login issues and lag are very annoying. I like the game, but I would tell anyone that hasn't bought it to wait a month and let them actually make the game work before jumping in.

That said, the core mechanics are refined Diablo 2. If you like playing D2, you'll like playing D3. The only thing I don't like right now is the grinding required to get everything you need for the secret level. Way more annoying than getting to the Cow Level in D2.

I find the AH part a bit contradictive somehow. Hating to grind for some set of items for the secret level while hating the AH for removing the need to grind to find powerful weapons.

I personally just hate grinding, it seems like work. I'm enjoying hardcore mode (and subsequently grind to level my character to high levels to enable me to finish the game.

Is it just me, or does Ars seem to be focusing on the negatives for this game? Even this article put up negative opinions from the forums.

I think it's because the rest of the gaming press is fanboying over the game to such a degree that someone had to point out that not everything is alright.

So they make it up by going to far in the other direction. I think this quote from the Gamespot review pretty much sums it up: "But these problems and frustrations are dwarfed by the pleasures Diablo III offers."

But anyway I don't understand the point of these articles at all. It'll just be another thread of harsh words and trolling.

I vaguely remembering liking D2 a lot when I played it. But that was 12 years ago, people. I certainly do not remember the details anymore.

I have liked D3 way more than I remember liking D2. Its easy to get into games with friends, combat is continually getting more challenging as I progress while still remaining fun, and the Auction House is addictive. I could easily see myself getting to 60 with multiple characters, and that's something I never did with D2.

The reviews are silly and made with rose colored glasses. It is a great game. Certainly better than many other huge blockbusters with paid for 90+ rating reviews.

The game looks amazing, backgrounds look hand-painted and the environments are broken up so you aren't just in one environment type for hours on end. The sound seems no different from previous Diablo installments, which makes it no longer interesting.

The actual game play is better than previous Diablo installments, there are reasons to actually use more than one or two abilities, and your skill choices allow you some flexibility with item selection as well. Unfortunately, the amount of time it takes to put together an experimental set of gear to test a new strategy is pretty unreasonably long making researching other people's strategies more time effective than setting up your own experiments.

The random content generation is, as always, fun. However, the value of a combination of bonuses on monsters and items is set according to the level of the seed which created those abilities not on the actual benefit of the abilities themselves. Changing equip requirements to reflect the items actual value, and giving loot benefits to nearly unfightable random mobs would even this out considerably.

All that said, I wouldn't bother recommending the game to anyone. The story is sad, small and short and the play through of the first level of difficulty is dull due to its insulting ease.

The AH is broke to shit right now. Login issues and lag are very annoying. I like the game, but I would tell anyone that hasn't bought it to wait a month and let them actually make the game work before jumping in.

That said, the core mechanics are refined Diablo 2. If you like playing D2, you'll like playing D3. The only thing I don't like right now is the grinding required to get everything you need for the secret level. Way more annoying than getting to the Cow Level in D2.

I find the AH part a bit contradictive somehow. Hating to grind for some set of items for the secret level while hating the AH for removing the need to grind to find powerful weapons.

I personally just hate grinding, it seems like work. I'm enjoying hardcore mode (and subsequently grind to level my character to high levels to enable me to finish the game.

I love the idea of the AH. It's like crowdsourcing good drops. The problem is that the AH has....issues. Once they fix those, I think the overall game will be better. I know a lot of people think the AH kills part of the game, but I disagree. If I'm forced to be online anyway, I may as well take advantage of one of the actual benefits of it.

Quote:

So they make it up by going to far in the other direction. I think this quote from the Gamespot review pretty much sums it up: "But these problems and frustrations are dwarfed by the pleasures Diablo III offers."

But anyway I don't understand the point of these articles at all. It'll just be another thread of harsh words and trolling.

They are hardly going in the other direction. They're saying "hey wait, the game isn't the second coming. Don't go overboard". Not "This game is shit and you are shit for playing it." Being the voice of moderation should only be considered "going the other direction" in American politics.

They are hardly going in the other direction. They're saying "hey wait, the game isn't the second coming. Don't go overboard". Not "This game is shit and you are shit for playing it." Being the voice of moderation should only be considered "going the other direction" in American politics.

Yeah I exaggerated a bit but especially the follow up article about how the game is broken and all that was just plain silly imo.

As a hardcore melee player in nightmare I reject the claims about customized builds. Sure you can pick and choose a myriad of skills and runes, even ones you enjoy extremely but factor in a penalty then its quite evident most of them are artificial.

The mechanics, that is leveling up, powerful abilities, mowing through mobs, item hunting are all there. But they were all there too in Diablo 2 and Torchlight. They made those games fun as well as Diablo 3. Which makes Diablo 3 a shallow positive experience.

Overall I bought the game on the hopes that the story would have been well fleshed out and expanded upon. So far the new Blizzard Activision has struck out on both SC2 and Diablo 3 story wise. I'm just no longer excited by a company that seems only to be able to polish what they've done before.

As a hardcore melee player in nightmare I reject the claims about customized builds. Sure you can pick and choose a myriad of skills and runes, even ones you enjoy extremely but factor in a penalty then its quite evident most of them are artificial.

It's the same with D2, you have to do it right if you want to survive (or be playable) in Hell. And when doing PvP it becomes even more important.

Initally I did not plan on purchasing Diablo III. I had boarded the internet hate train for the game, and was spouting the usual arguments pertaining to the required internet connection, lack of Blizzard North development, real money auction house, ect. Then I actually played it. My friend had brought his laptop over to my apartment and I sunk a couple hours into the game, and I completly changed my opinion. The game itself is fun as hell, and I've learned that it's important to come to one's own opinions through actual experience when it comes to computer gaming in paticular.

Let me refute the usual arguments on a point by point basis.

1. The always on internet connection. I will admit it's a bit of a bummer for people who don't have a steady HSI connection, but for me personally it's not really an issue. In fact, I find that the benifits outweigh limitations. The fact that I can play my characters on any computer that has the game installed is a nice convience, and having my friends pop into my game seamlessly to assist with demon slaying is much more fun than the hoops that had to be jumped through with Diablo II.

2. The graphical style. Initally I was of the opinion that the game resembled WoW to closely. The hand picked comparison screenshots found on the internet certianly made it seem that way. Seeing the game in action is much different though. The art style is very Blizzard, so there are some slight similarities to WoW and Starcraft II, but they are minor, and to me the game looks pretty much like Diablo II 3D. What I think really makes the game shine are the animations. Most of the enemies have a unique death animation depending what type of abillity you use to kill them, and they are all wantonly gory and highly detailed. Limbs and severed heads will fly off bodies trailing blood, bloated corpses burst and splatter goop and organs, and flesh is stripped from bones leaving nothing but blood stained skeletons behind. It's simply awesome. Plus the game has a pretty decent physics engine that does a great job of making the enviroment feel less static.

3. The auction house. I understand the arguments stating that the auction house "ruins" the game because now you don't have to kill thousands of enemies to find that one perfect rare item, you just browse the auction house for a few minutes to see if there's anything that tickles your fancy. However, no one is forcing anybody to use the AH, and players still have the option of grinding for their own items if that's how they want to play the game. It's just another option for players, and options are always a good thing.

Hm, it seems people still don't get what always online requirement really is: a way to kill second-hand market and make sure you'll never be able to buy the game for less (has anyone checked the price for SC2 lately?).It's a legitimate choice for Blizzard, no doubt about it, but let's not be retarded here and pretend it's all for a greater good, ok?

I, too, have completely ignored the auction house. After seeing how cheap the good items were I didn't want it to ruin my game experience by taking advantage of that. And I disagree that the game feels as customizable as D2. I really enjoyed making min-maxed specialized builds in D2 and there's no option to do that in D3 whatsoever. In fact, this had me almost livid when the game came out. I eventually settled down and learned to enjoy it for the random reward system.

The Ars Technica front page really seems to have it out to put this game in a bad a light. A rapidly growing 108 page thread, most players posting in it happy, and they find a bunch of negative opinions and a couple luke warm opinions?

3. The auction house. I understand the arguments stating that the auction house "ruins" the game because now you don't have to kill thousands of enemies to find that one perfect rare item, you just browse the auction house for a few minutes to see if there's anything that tickles your fancy. However, no one is forcing anybody to use the AH, and players still have the option of grinding for their own items if that's how they want to play the game. It's just another option for players, and options are always a good thing.

I'm definitely one of those players who believes that life is about the journey and not the destination. I actually enjoy pouring blood sweat and tears into work in order to make the rewards that much sweeter. Using the auction house would rob me of that joy, thus ruining my game experience. So I guess you could say that the AH doesn't ruin the game for everyone, just people like me.

The Ars Technica front page really seems to have it out to put this game in a bad a light. A rapidly growing 108 page thread, most players posting in it happy, and they find a bunch of negative opinions and a couple luke warm opinions?

I think it's good of Ars to point out the bad aspects of an overwhelmingly popular game. If you don't, then you run the risk of turning Diablo into a Call of Duty or Madden franchise -- they turn out the same crap every year and it still gets the highest scores and sales.

Tell a game developer that they walk on water and they'll stop trying to improve.

3. The auction house. I understand the arguments stating that the auction house "ruins" the game because now you don't have to kill thousands of enemies to find that one perfect rare item, you just browse the auction house for a few minutes to see if there's anything that tickles your fancy. However, no one is forcing anybody to use the AH, and players still have the option of grinding for their own items if that's how they want to play the game. It's just another option for players, and options are always a good thing.

I'm definitely one of those players who believes that life is about the journey and not the destination. I actually enjoy pouring blood sweat and tears into work in order to make the rewards that much sweeter. Using the auction house would rob me of that joy, thus ruining my game experience. So I guess you could say that the AH doesn't ruin the game for everyone, just people like me.

You're not being forced to use it and still have the option of grinding for hours and hours for your items, so I don't understand your argument.

3. The auction house. I understand the arguments stating that the auction house "ruins" the game because now you don't have to kill thousands of enemies to find that one perfect rare item, you just browse the auction house for a few minutes to see if there's anything that tickles your fancy. However, no one is forcing anybody to use the AH, and players still have the option of grinding for their own items if that's how they want to play the game. It's just another option for players, and options are always a good thing.

I'm definitely one of those players who believes that life is about the journey and not the destination. I actually enjoy pouring blood sweat and tears into work in order to make the rewards that much sweeter. Using the auction house would rob me of that joy, thus ruining my game experience. So I guess you could say that the AH doesn't ruin the game for everyone, just people like me.

You're not being forced to use it and still have the option of grinding for hours and hours for your items, so I don't understand your argument.

3. The auction house. I understand the arguments stating that the auction house "ruins" the game because now you don't have to kill thousands of enemies to find that one perfect rare item, you just browse the auction house for a few minutes to see if there's anything that tickles your fancy. However, no one is forcing anybody to use the AH, and players still have the option of grinding for their own items if that's how they want to play the game. It's just another option for players, and options are always a good thing.

I'm definitely one of those players who believes that life is about the journey and not the destination. I actually enjoy pouring blood sweat and tears into work in order to make the rewards that much sweeter. Using the auction house would rob me of that joy, thus ruining my game experience. So I guess you could say that the AH doesn't ruin the game for everyone, just people like me.

You're not being forced to use it and still have the option of grinding for hours and hours for your items, so I don't understand your argument.

You're not agreeing with him. You said "the AH doesn't ruin the game for everyone, just people like me." This says that the AH does ruin the game for "people like me". He's saying that it only ruins it if you use it.

1. The always on internet connection. I will admit it's a bit of a bummer for people who don't have a steady HSI connection, but for me personally it's not really an issue. In fact, I find that the benifits outweigh limitations. The fact that I can play my characters on any computer that has the game installed is a nice convience, and having my friends pop into my game seamlessly to assist with demon slaying is much more fun than the hoops that had to be jumped through with Diablo II.

3. The auction house. I understand the arguments stating that the auction house "ruins" the game because now you don't have to kill thousands of enemies to find that one perfect rare item, you just browse the auction house for a few minutes to see if there's anything that tickles your fancy. However, no one is forcing anybody to use the AH, and players still have the option of grinding for their own items if that's how they want to play the game. It's just another option for players, and options are always a good thing.

I would highly reccomend this game to anyone who enjoyed Diablo II.

I respect your opinions but I don't agree on two of them.

1. All of those benefits you outlined don't require a constant connection and have been done before without it. In that light I don't believe you have demonstrated that its a net positive. Nonetheless so far in practice its been an annoyance not a deal breaker. So far.

3. To most it sounds like semantics until you actually try it out. There's a difference between not having a choice and having one and still making the same choice. Part of the appeal of hardcore is that you don't have a choice when you die. You could do exactly the same thing with a softcore character but it isn't the same.

Part of the appeal of a scavenger hunt is that you have to hunt, not an option (even if you don't use it) to simply buy all the items you need to collect. The inherent qualities of the two is that there isn't a choice, weird as it sounds.

I must concede though that its like arguing with someone on a principle even though the outcome is exactly the same.

You're not agreeing with him. You said "the AH doesn't ruin the game for everyone, just people like me." This says that the AH does ruin the game for "people like me". He's saying that it only ruins it if you use it.

Which may not be correct, either. IF you play with a group of friends, and you are the only one that refuses to use the AH, two things could happen: 1. they leave you behind because they're not hampered by bad equipment. 2. They bitch about being held back by you.

I'm not saying those will, but they can. And now, from a certain view, the AH has negatively impacted everyone.

3. The auction house. I understand the arguments stating that the auction house "ruins" the game because now you don't have to kill thousands of enemies to find that one perfect rare item, you just browse the auction house for a few minutes to see if there's anything that tickles your fancy. However, no one is forcing anybody to use the AH, and players still have the option of grinding for their own items if that's how they want to play the game. It's just another option for players, and options are always a good thing.

I'm definitely one of those players who believes that life is about the journey and not the destination. I actually enjoy pouring blood sweat and tears into work in order to make the rewards that much sweeter. Using the auction house would rob me of that joy, thus ruining my game experience. So I guess you could say that the AH doesn't ruin the game for everyone, just people like me.

You're not being forced to use it and still have the option of grinding for hours and hours for your items, so I don't understand your argument.

You wrote, "[T]he AH doesn't ruin the game for everyone, just people like me." That sentence implies that the auction house DOES ruin the game for you, which is not agreeing with me. I think the real problem is you not understanding how to formulate arugments that reflect what you're actually thinking.

Inferno Act 2 is the first problem. It is a giant wall in terms of difficulty. Act 1 is doable, Act 2 is just stupid. Though, overall Inferno is pretty much a giant pain. Rest of the game is fun, but Inferno Act 2? It's just stupidly difficult. Mobs hitting for 20-30k? Yeah, that's a great idea.

The second is the auction house issues. Commodities have been disabled since Wednesday on the Americas Region, and the equipment has all sorts of issues.

Other than those 2 glaring issues, the game is fun, and worth $60. Yes always online sucks, but there's 2 reasons why they didn't do that. Auction House is the #2 reason, while piracy is the #1 reason. Then again, let's face the facts, how many people actually played Open Diablo 2 compared to those who played the ladder(online only *GASP*)?

It has some really annoying MMOisms, like getting hit by things that look far away on your screen. You can't really dodge or run away from things, either.

Skill system is an improvement because you can no longer ruin your character with bad choices. You no longer need to invest 20 hours to see if playing as an X-wizard instead of Y-wizard would be more fun. By tying everything to weapon damage, old skills never get obsolete.

The story is bad. Really @#$@'ing bad. Everyone's carrying the idiot ball, and it's too hammy to connect emotionally. This is one of diablo's lines: "So you approach the occulus with the aim to destroy it? You will not succeed!" Was this written by a third grader? Or someone who doesn't speak english as a first language?

So, it's fun, but I don't see myself playing it for years. Once you clear inferno or hit a wall of frustration, not sure what would make you come back.

It really needs some big optional dungeons. I'd like to see one that's just filled with mooks, because I personally hate the whole boss obsession the game has going on.

You know, it's odd. Anecdotally, almost everyone I know who has actually played the game has enjoyed the hell out of it. Only a handful have found it less than compelling. By and large, the most numerous critics of the game seem to be either people who haven't played it (unable/unwilling due to the online qualifier; don't like dungeon-clickers; et cetera) or professional reviewers who seem to be scrambling to be the first to post a negative review of the current best-selling PC game.

It's hard to argue with someone who has a preconception (this swings both ways - I readily admit to giving Blizzard games leeway on release that I wouldn't give other game companies simply due to their track record over the last fifteen years), and it seems like there are a lot of preconceptions when it comes to Diablo 3.

I played it to the end and I thought the game was..... pretty average. The game was solid (once the dropping issue disappeared) and the game was well streamlined with no obvious flaws in the gameplay but there wasn't anything really drawing me in.

I like the AH because the chances I'll find something usable seem so small that after about 5 hours of playing I'd see no progression unless I was able to use the hundreds of thousands of gold to purchase gear.

People complain that it's too easy if you use the AH, but I don't have fun with games that are frustratingly difficult. I work full time going to school, life can be hard enough without introducing more difficulty through video games. I like that with the AH who just want to grind and farm levels for hours can, but with my style of play it is great that if i put in a couple hours I can know that I'll at least be able to afford a moderate upgrade if i don't find one. The example in the article of how the AH is OP is premature, at 55 with decent gear I need a good sum of gold to get a mild upgrade. I generally keep my weapon upgraded via auction house and change out gear > 15 levels below my level with AH gear.

The always on complaint is shortsighted, the game has been audited and someone used 10 megabits of data for about 6 hours of time. The number of people that will purchase this game that don't have a connection capable of supporting that is extremely small, and the benefits greatly outweigh the negatives. For someone with a basic internet connection, the single/multiplayer experience is seamless and the portability of characters is great. The biggest frustration my friends and I have with Borderlands, is that every time we sit down to play it, someone doesn't have their character.

The story has its shortcomings, but some of the cut scenes are among my favorite blizzard cut scenes ever.

The game has been out for a bit over two weeks, they are not intending people to have finished Inferno already. There are some balance issues but it will we worked out.

Cesar Torres / Cesar is the Social Editor at Ars Technica. His areas of expertise are in online communities, human-computer interaction, usability, and e-reader technology. Cesar lives in New York City.